Ride leader: Steve Palincsar
Members: Jill Thompson-Reise, Doug Lesar, Debby Bowman, Pat Walthers, Mike Bivens and PPTC members Louis Goetz, Bill Dennen, Tom Johnathan, Bill Steiglitz, Norm Sanderstrom, Meg Tipperman, Bruce Ralfsen (guessing at some of those hard-to-read names)
Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/5031987 62.7 miles (a little longer as ridden because we had to detour around closed Cyclorama Rd in the Battlefield) and 3344' of elevation gain, according to RWGPS (some thought the elevation gain must have been much more because of how hard it felt, but I think that had more to do with the wind than the elevation gain)
Weather: What a temperature range today! Low 50s at the start, rising to almost 80 degrees by the time we got to Emmitsburg the second time; sunny, windy. A thoroughly amazing day that didn't seem at all like late October.
Mishaps & mechanicals: none, unless you count bugs in the eye (me, on Kelbaugh, bad enough to make me stop and use eye drops to make the pain stop) and in the mouth (judging from the coughing, more than a few and more than just me). Bruce had an injury that was acting up, so he turned around shortly after the start.
AMS: 11.8
This was a joint OHBike/PPTC ride, and we had a large group that quickly split into a fast group that we saw briefly at the first rest stop in Fairfield, and a CC group consisting of me, Jill, Debby, Pat, Mike, Norm and Bill that stayed together and was simply wonderful to ride with. Things got off to a rocky start, as Thurmont Community Park was closed due to an evening Halloween event, so everyone had to relocate to the Middle School at mile 0.8 on the route (up the hill on Water St and take the first left) and we left almost a half hour late, but once we got under way things went well. The fast group disappeared, as they are wont to do, particularly on PPTC rides, but the CC group stuck together throughout the entire ride until the last rest stop at Mt St Mary's.
Knowing what lay ahead on Kelbaugh (other than the hills around the Devil's Den, the hardest part of the ride) we took a break at the student center - well, all of us knew except Jill, who didn't understand why we were taking a break only 5 or 6 miles from the end and went on ahead and by the end of the ride discovered exactly why we'd taken a rest.
When we started on the final leg Pat and Debby decided to skip Kelbaugh and stay on St Anthonys, crossing Rt 15 at Orndorf. We've come back that way in the past, but the route's currently complicated by the closure of the Roddy covered bridge due to damage, forcing a detour. It must have added a few miles, because they arrived at least 10 or 15 minutes later than the group that stayed on Kelbaugh.
Jill added a few bonus miles at the end, too, going past the turn on Summit (very easy to do if you're intently focussed on the climb up the hill on Water Street) and getting directions from a local resident that turned out be to a different school in town.
